Me, Emma (28) – huge Disney fan, my first trip to Walt Disney World was in 1993 and I’ve been 15 times now!

DH (28) – not as much of a fan but really enjoys our trips to WDW and sailing on the cruise ships too.

Where

This was an amazing vacation, we started planning it nearly two years ago – almost as soon as we got off the Disney Dream ship on our honeymoon, we knew we wanted to do another Disney cruise!

So the cruise was booked in October 2011, we chose a 7 night Western Caribbean itinerary on the Disney Fantasy – visiting Grand Cayman and Mexico, as well as the beautiful Castaway Cay.
We also booked two nights at Walt Disney World before the cruise, and then wanted to visit somewhere else in the USA afterwards (otherwise it’s a long way to travel just for a week!). Initially I suggested we flew over to the West Coast and visited Disneyland, as we’ve never been there. However, as I started to research it I realised it would be a long flight, three more hours of jetlag, and there is much more in California and on the west coast that we’d want to do so it wouldn’t fit into a week’s vacation.
So…. DH suggested Boston, Massachusetts… we both wanted to visit the city – plus it was on the same coast as Florida.. and a shorter flight back to London on the way home.

When

Our itinerary was as follows:

June 20th - 22nd Walt Disney World, staying at the Boardwalk Villas

June 22nd – 29th Disney Fantasy – Western Caribbean Cruise

June 29th – July 5th Boston MA – staying at Loews Back Bay Hotel

Why

It was our 2 year wedding anniversary on June 18th, so this vacation was a great way to celebrate!

We finished work on Wednesday evening, and I had a busy evening of finalising the packing (which Id started the weekend before, always love packing for a Disney vacation!), and we went to bed at 11pm  somehow I managed to sleep, until my alarm went off at 5am

(This countdown started at 500+ days, so I was pretty excited!)

At 6.30am DFiL picked us up and we were on our way to the airport! I checked in online so we didnt need to be there too early (flight at 11am), but as it was a week day we wanted to have plenty of time to get around the M25 motorway. Luckily the traffic was fine, we dropped our suitcases off and were through security so quickly that we were in the departure lounge by 7.30am!

We did a little shopping, I bought my usual items  chocolates for the cabin crew, perfume and bottled water. Then we got some breakfast at Frankie & Bennys  smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for me, bacon & eggs for DH.

We wandered around the shops a little more, bought a book each, then it was time to board the plane! We were a little late taking off, but the pilot made the time up so we landed in MCO at 3.30pm, on time.
The flight was pretty good, we flew with Virgin Atlantic as we had frequent flyer miles to use which gave us £100 discount each off the price. I watched The Great and Powerful Oz, listened to some podcasts and watched episodes of Modern Family and Phineas & Ferb. Its amazing how quickly 9 hours goes, because soon we were descending into Orlando! As we reached the Florida coast line, we flew right over Port Canaveral  and DH & I were pretty saw we could see a Disney ship (probably the Dream) docked there!
The landing was quite bumpy, the pilot warned us of it  at one point we really bounced, everyone screamed!

We got off the plane quickly, and were among the first at immigration  I love that they play the Illuminations music there! An elderly member of staff at the front of the queue said welcome to America  to us I was so happy to be there

We were quickly through immigration, collected our suitcases and through customs.. and on the monorail to the terminal.

We had a bit of a wait and the Magical Express terminal, only because the guest in front of us in line was asking (in Spanish) about park tickets, so the Cast Member (luckily from Puerto Rico!) was telling her all of the options available.

Soon we were onboard our bus and heading to the most magical place on earth!

We had a great bus driver called Eric, I know they are Mears employees rather than CMs, but he was really good he even sang when you wish upon a star as we went under the gate.

(Video clip of singing bus driver)

We stopped at Caribbean Beach resort first, and then we were the next stop Disneys Boardwalk.

DH collected our suitcases, while I walked into the lobby to check in a CM stood outside said welcome home to me I love it when they say that!

There was no line at check-in, the CM was lovely, she chatted away to us and had already prepared two anniversary buttons for us! We had to choose a pin to use on our KTTW cards, this was new for us.

We had a garden view room, number 3125, really close to DHS which was a great location, except on first arriving as it was 5 minute walk down the corridors!

I unpacked a little, but we really just wanted to get out and into Disney World!

The weather wasnt great this evening, it had been raining lightly ever since wed got on the Magical Express but we didnt mind, just put the ponchos on and headed to Epcot&

We stopped at Guest Relations at International Gateway to exchange our paper annual passes to RFID card ones.. then we got to try out the new turnstiles! The CM there guessed it was our first time using them and walked us through the process.. and gave us a round of applause once we were in the park.

I didnt take a lot of photos this evening as the rain was pretty heavy at times, but our first stop was the France pavilion for a Grey Goose slushie for me, and a beer for DH, to toast the start of our vacation.

We wandered slowly around world showcase, and decided to stop at Tutto Gusto for something light to eat. We were seated quickly, and ordered some drinks and a meat sharing platter. Our server also gave us the Tutto Italia menus, and said we were welcome to order anything from there too. We didnt, but after reading through the menu agreed wed have to try it during our January trip (ADR is now made for January 10th.. night before my half marathon!).

The meat platter was really good, we particularly liked the fennel-marinated salami.

As we left there, the rain was easing off a bit we carried on walking around World Showcase, originally wed hoped to ride the new Test Track, however I could see from the Lines app that it had a 70 minute wait! So instead we stayed in World Showcase, stopping at China for a little something else to eat the honey chicken with rice to share.

Next we went to the Norway pavilion, and I bought another bottle of my favourite body lotion Laila when we were there in October the designer had been there and Id got a signed photo and perfume sample!

By this time it was after 8pm, the sun was setting and the rain had stopped!

We both got a fiesta margarita from the Mexico pavilion, then made our way around the lagoon back to the bridge between the UK and France pavilions, waiting for Illuminations to start at 9.

I didnt feel at all tired, but its odd to think that wed been up for nearly 24 hours travelled 4000 miles, and now I was stood in my favourite place in the world!

As usual I said I wouldnt take any photos and just enjoy the fireworks, but I couldnt help it

We wandered back to the Boardwalk, I unpacked what we needed for the next few days we also had a voice mail from Mickey and Minnie, wishing us a happy anniversary!
I was in bed by 10.30pm, exhausted but so pleased to be there.

Hope the flight crew enjoyed your gifts. What type of perfume do you buy?

That is so cute that the Mears driver sang to you guys!

Love Tutto Gusto. In fact, you were the one that told me about this place so thank you

I'm going to have to remember to check out the Norway pavilion this time around, and look for that Laila lotion. The lotion I have right now (which is from the UK pavilion), DH HATES IT WITH A PASSION. I absolutely love it and love to enhale it, and it take me right back to the UK. But he says I smell like an old lady He doesn't want me buying anymore after it's gone, so now I'll have to look for a new one.

Geez even reading about someone just arriving at Orlando airport, getting on the Magical Express and arriving at Disney World gets me excited every time. Great start. I always need to take pictures of the fireworks as well. I can't even say how many pictures I have of their fireworks.

That landing would scare me, though. At least the pilot warned you, but still...everyone screaming and a bounce would freak me out.

Very cool that you had a good bus driver. That can really a bus ride more magical.

I have not heard about the PIN for KTTW cards. Did you need to use it for something with them?

And clearly I'm not keeping up with my Disney news, since I have no clue what the new turnstiles are like. Good thing they have people to walk you through what to do and cheer you on, I guess.

That sounds like just a lovely evening in Epcot!

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Hi!

I'm not the best at flying, but usually it's the mid-flight turbulence that scares me - I was ok during the landing, maybe because I knew Florida was below us, not the Atlantic

I agree about the bus drivers, our one was great this time

For the KTTW cards, if you make any purchases in the parks/resorts - then you use the contactless payment pad (shaped like Mickey!) and enter your pin code that you picked when checking-in. I guess it makes it safer in case you lost your card and someone else tried to use it.... we use pin codes on our credit cards in the UK so we were used to it!

And the new turnstiles.. are not really turnstiles! Just posts in the ground with a Mickey shape on the top, you hold your card up (and in the near future, Magic Bands) and then place your finger on the scanner.. then the Mickey turns green, and you're allowed in to the park!
We used it the next day at DHS and it made entering the park so much faster

Hope the flight crew enjoyed your gifts. What type of perfume do you buy?

That is so cute that the Mears driver sang to you guys!

Love Tutto Gusto. In fact, you were the one that told me about this place so thank you

I'm going to have to remember to check out the Norway pavilion this time around, and look for that Laila lotion. The lotion I have right now (which is from the UK pavilion), DH HATES IT WITH A PASSION. I absolutely love it and love to enhale it, and it take me right back to the UK. But he says I smell like an old lady He doesn't want me buying anymore after it's gone, so now I'll have to look for a new one.

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Hi Lesha!

That is one of my favourite breakfasts too

The chocolates for the cabin crew went down well! The air hostess I gave them to was so surprised, I like doing random 'good deeds' each day if I can, and I really appreciate the job that cabin crew do! Sometimes we've been given glasses of champagne/little extras after giving crew a box of chocolates, this time we didn't - but it didn't matter, her reaction was so cute!

The perfume was for me, I got Vera Wang's new fragrance called 'Pink Princess' - it's in a heart-shaped sparkly bottle, perfect for me!

We love Tutto Gusto too - I realised we'd been there four times in the last year.. which is probably more than any bar or pub at home!

The Laila lotion is so nice, it's a fresh/cotton smell - the whole shop smells of it, so I'm always reminded of Epcot when I use it hehe I used to have a pink grapefruit lotion that my DH hated, I couldn't really smell it but he couldn't stand it?!

Geez even reading about someone just arriving at Orlando airport, getting on the Magical Express and arriving at Disney World gets me excited every time. Great start. I always need to take pictures of the fireworks as well. I can't even say how many pictures I have of their fireworks.

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Hi! Thank you for your comments : every time we watch a fireworks show I say I won't take any photos, they rarely come out well and I end up watching the show through a lense.. but I still do it!

Disneys Hollywood Studios, Boardwalk.. and will we get to try The Grey Stuff?!

We woke up really early, as usual, due to the jet lag  but this time I didnt mind because I had something planned before we headed to DHS for the day I wanted to practice running at Disney World!

As a bit of background Ive registered for the WDW Half Marathon in January 2014. I exercise a lot at the gym but had never really enjoyed running outside, its so much harder than on the treadmill! However the half marathon was something Ive always wanted to do as a Disney fan; and next year it works out ok for us to take a vacation in January.. so Im doing it! I registered in April and have been running outside every weekend since then, and Im actually really enjoying the training  last Saturday I ran 12.5 miles in just under 2 hours, my longest run ever! Something Im enjoying the most is the learning about running, fitness and nutrition  especially the Disney-specific websites and podcasts such as Team Run Disney and the Mickey Miles Podcast. Theres a great community of Disney runners!

So  back to the Boardwalk  we both got up, DH said hed try running too, dressed in our gym gear and were outside by 6.30am! The Boardwalk area was beautiful that time of day and it was great to see other runners and walkers out too  everyone would smile and say good morning! We ran two laps of Crescent Lake together (its about 0.8 miles all the way around), then we headed back to the canal/pool side of the Boardwalk  DH went back to the room but I wanted to carry on, so I ran to Hollywood Studios and back!

Stopping to take a photo (I need to practice doing this during the race in January!)

I ran back to the Boardwalk, and did another lap of the lake. I had wanted to run to International Gateway too, but found that the gates were closed just beyond the Beach Club.

I loved how flat it was at WDW compared to running at home, I kept a good pace despite much higher humidity than I was used to  my total run was just under 5 miles. (My iPod was still on UK time!)

I am so excited for the race in January now!

I decided to stop at the Boardwalk Bakery to get a banana and something to drink before heading back to the room. It was lovely to see the newly refurbished bakery, but I suddenly became aware of how sweaty I must have looked, wearing no makeup, and still dressed in gymwear! The CM who served me didnt say anything though I tried a Smart water  we dont have this in the UK and I really liked it.

Back at the room we got ready, it was only 8am but we were ready to head to DHS for opening at 9!

That's awesome that you'll be doing the half marathon in January! Hope your hubby will be cheering you on, on the sidelines. Do you actually have a time that you want to hit? Or are you just going to go with it, make stops with characters for pics, etc?

I could never imagine running 12.8 miles. I would love to walk it though. I enjoyed your early morning pictures. Even with the humidity I love waking up early in Disney World and going outside while the sun is coming up and it is quiet. It is just so relaxing.